Two kitchens · One late counter
Everything on the plate comes from within a day's drive.
One dining room that takes its time, one glass house that opens before dawn, and a counter by the lounge that keeps cooking long after the rest of the coast has gone to bed.
The Salt Room
Dinner only
18:00–22:00, Tuesday to Sunday. 44 covers. Booking advised, walk-ins seated at the pass.
The pass, before service
The main dining room sits on the quay side under the old hoist beam, with six tables along the windows and the rest set back where the light is lower. Service is unhurried on purpose: four courses take a little over two hours, and nobody will clear a plate to turn your table.
The menu changes with what the boats bring in — usually cod, ling or halibut in winter, mackerel and langoustine from June. Alongside that, root vegetables from the farm at Fjeldstad, sheep's cheese from the same family who supplied the building when it still stored grain, and bread proved overnight in the cellar. Two of the four courses are vegetable-led every night, not as a substitution but as the way the menu is written.
Guests dining here often ask for the corner table by the north window. It seats two, faces the channel, and is the one table we hold back for anyone celebrating something.
- Four courses, or three for anyone eating before an early night
- Wine list of 90 bottles, half from small growers, twelve by the glass
- Full non-alcoholic pairing — ferments, infusions and pressed juice
- Allergies and diets handled by the kitchen directly, told at booking
The Glasshouse
All day
06:00–15:00 daily. 60 covers. No booking needed at any hour.
A glazed room built into the courtyard where the loading yard used to be, warm enough in February to sit in a shirt. Breakfast runs four and a half hours because nobody should have to set an alarm on holiday: rye and barley breads, cured and smoked fish, boiled eggs, three kinds of porridge, fruit stewed the night before, and coffee that is ground to order rather than left standing.
From noon it becomes the lunch room — soup, an open sandwich, one hot dish and a plate of whatever the dinner kitchen is testing. It is also where most guests end up reading in the afternoon, which we encourage; the staff will bring you tea and otherwise leave you entirely alone.
Children eat here free until they are ten. High chairs, a step at the basin in the washroom, and a shelf of very battered books by the door.
The Ninth Counter
Evening and late
17:00–00:30. Nine stools and four small tables. Adults only after 21:00.
Nine stools at a zinc counter between the lounge and the north stair, and the only kitchen in the building still lit at midnight. Toasted shrimp sandwiches, a bowl of mussels, cured ham, one soup, and a short list of drinks made without ceremony. This is where the staff eat when service ends.
Because the counter sits nearest the gaming floor, it is also where hosts send anyone who has been sitting at a table too long — a plate of something hot and a glass of water break the evening up better than anything else we have tried. Guests who want a nightcap without a room full of noise generally end up here too.
- Kitchen stops at 00:30, drinks at 00:45, room closes at 01:00
- Non-alcoholic list as long as the alcoholic one, and priced lower
- Water is brought to every seat without being asked and never charged
- No service to anyone visibly intoxicated — house policy, no exceptions
Practical
Room service
A short menu is available to rooms from 07:00 to 23:00, and soup, bread and cheese are left in the pantry off the lobby for anyone arriving after that. No tray charge.
Private dining
The cellar room seats fourteen at one table, with its own entrance from the courtyard. Used for family dinners and small company gatherings. Set menu, agreed a week ahead.
Dress
None specified anywhere in the building, including at dinner. People arrive from the sauna in what they were wearing and are seated without comment.